Rookie rep cites year of achievement

Saturday

Dec 21, 2013 at 2:00 AM

MIDDLETOWN — To hear him tell it, Sean Patrick Maloney is making his mark as a rookie congressman one constituent call at a time, focusing himself and his staff on targeted local issues and bureaucratic troubleshooting instead of partisan brawls in Washington.

BY CHRIS MCKENNA

MIDDLETOWN — To hear him tell it, Sean Patrick Maloney is making his mark as a rookie congressman one constituent call at a time, focusing himself and his staff on targeted local issues and bureaucratic troubleshooting instead of partisan brawls in Washington.

Meeting with the Times Herald-Record editorial board Friday, the Cold Spring Democrat reeled off highlights from his first year in office that accentuated constituent service and work on low-profile issues important to pockets of his Hudson Valley district, such as crop-insurance reform and dam safety.

One of his proudest accomplishments: handling nearly 1,200 requests for service from residents of New York's 18th Congressional District.

Another: helping the City of Newburgh Fire Department secure a $2.4 million federal grant to hire 15 firefighters.

"It's these things, I believe, that define how I view the job," he said. "And so it's not just that they matter in and of themselves — they do — but it's my way to, in my first year in office, demonstrate by actions that there's a way to make this job work, to make it deliver results."

Asked about the rocky implementation of the Affordable Care Act, Maloney said the rollout has gone more smoothly in New York than in other states, and described his own, mildly frustrating experience signing up for insurance on the health exchange in Washington, D.C. He said the city's insurance website crashed twice while he was using it but eventually let him finish — about an hour later.

He pointed out that the Democrats' 2010 health care law preceded him and had parts he didn't like, as he acknowledged before taking office. He stuck to his flexible defense of the law, saying, "Let's fix what's broken and move forward."

"I don't think people in Orange County or in the Hudson Valley are really invested in who wins this political game," Maloney said. "They really care about whether this thing's going to work."

Elected in a moderate district that has switched representatives three times since 2006 and flipped between Democrat and Republican each time, Maloney said he knows the delicate ideological line he walks, and embraces the added scrutiny.

Representing a highly competitive district instead of a "supersafe" one is virtually a different job, he said.

"I like that, to be honest with you," he said. "It's a lot more work. But it's a healthy thing. What it means is that we have to listen to everybody. We don't have the luxury of being on an ideological, frolicking detour."

Asked about a potential rematch in 2014 with Nan Hayworth, the Republican freshman he unseated last year, Maloney said he would relish a comparison of their records.

"She was given two years to do this job," he said. "I'm happy to put our two records in front of the voters and say, 'Here's the choice.'"